Why The Hawks Convincingly Won The 2018 Draft Day Trade

The once-maligned trade by the Hawks has seen a correction in terms of perception as Trae Young led his team to the Eastern Conference Finals. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Luka Doncic and Trae Young embrace after a game. (Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

With the whole world watching, on the biggest of stages, the Atlanta Hawks proved that they belonged in the conversation as one of the contenders in the East, particularly Trae Young and Cam Reddish.

For the past three years, there has been a conception that the Hawks lost their 2018 draft-day swap with the Dallas Mavericks. The trade involved Luka Doncic; he was selected by the Hawks with the third selection of that year’s draft for Young and the 2019 10th pick which became Reddish, out of Duke University.

Young showed the world that he can be the best player on a winning team as nobody outside of I-285 in Atlanta believed the Hawks could even get out of the first round. Young finished with second-most points all-time in a playoff debut even after missing two games with a bone bruise in his right foot, tallying 472 points while averaging 29 points and 10 assists as only he and LeBron James in his last season in Cleveland in 2018 having averaged these numbers. Reddish missed the last parts of the season and most of the Hawks' playoff run before playing a big role in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals as he played defense on Khris Middleton, who had been playing at a high level against the Hawks in this series, as they did not have any on-ball defenders to slow him down until Reddish changed that perception. Reddish’s defense on Middleton along with the offensive heroics of Lou Williams helped propel the Hawks past the Bucks in one of the  games with Young missing that game with an injury.

Reddish helped keep Middleton under 20 points and also shot 6/17, tallying 16 points. Then, in the close-out game in Atlanta for Game 6 Reddish poured in a memorable offensive performance leading the team in scoring that game. Reddish scored 21 points off of the bench, also going six of seven from behind the three-point line to give the Hawks the spark they needed with Young hobbled, being the first game back from injury after missing Games 4 and 5. 

Reddish, when healthy, proved he was a key contributor for this Atlanta Hawks team. (via Curtis Compton)

It was a small coming-out party for the Duke product as after the game coach Nate McMillan stated he saw a lot of Paul George in his game.

Reddish has always had the skills to flourish at this level as some said out of college he had the most skill out of the three big Duke stars who were drafted in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft, him, Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett, but it was the willingness and commitment to be consistent enough to put it all together.

Yes, the Mavericks did receive Doncic in the deal but Young is just as good if not better than him going off of the numbers and team success, and if Reddish can turn into a key role player or even a star the Hawks will come away looking like geniuses for walking away with that deal.

We could very well be looking at this deal in ten years and wondering what were we all thinking saying Doncic was the second coming of Larry Bird or LeBron James while on the other end of the spectrum the team that traded him got this generation’s Steve Nash and a potential star player to go along with him.